1. Technical Field
The invention relates generally to the control of graphical displays, and more particularly, to a method, system, and program product for controlling a display on a computer-aided design (CAD) data editing screen, whereby commands more likely to be utilized are preferentially displayed.
2. Background Art
In recent years, computer-aided design (CAD) systems have been widely used for the mechanical design of products. A CAD system is applicable to a broad range fields from the design of ships or aircraft to the design of precision instruments. Further, CAD systems are applicable not only to the design of a finished product but also the design of its component parts. Such parts include, for example, printed circuit boards, sheet metal parts, plastic parts, etc.
Design processes of each part or the finished product vary according to the type of part or finished product. For this reason, in order to increase design efficiency, a conventional CAD system provides a user with a large number of commands suitable for various design processes. If the number of commands is large, however, it becomes difficult for the user to find commands applicable to the operation that the user wants.
In order to solve this problem, there has conventionally been proposed a technology of classifying the commands that are apt to be used simultaneously into respective command groups and displaying them together. For example, the CAD system displays, based on the designation by the user, a certain command group in a window on a screen for designing. When receiving an instruction of switching the command group, the CAD system displays another command group in the window other than the command group previously displayed. This window is called a workbench or a toolbox, and is widely used in design programs.
In conventional CAD systems, several commands are displayed on the workbench, for example. Even in designing one part, however, the several commands may be insufficient for the required tasks, and thus the user must change the display of the workbench. Moreover, as design phases proceed from the initial planning phase to the final drafting phase, the commands being used may also change. For this reason, the design operation has required a designer's skill or the design operation has been sluggish, so that there has been a case where efficiency of the design process has deteriorated.
There has also been proposed a system for aligning icons displayed on the window in order of frequency in use, or in order of access time. If such a system is applied, the icons for inputting the commands can be aligned in order of frequency in use, or in order of access time. In a CAD system, however, the commands to be used may change according to the design phase, so that the command being used immediately before the operation may not be used in future phases. Moreover, an icon being used at high frequency for a certain design object may not be used for other design objects at all.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a method, a system, and a program which can solve the aforementioned problems.